Utilities yet to be fully restored in flood-hit Obrenovac

Utilities yet to be fully restored in flood-hit Obrenovac

Earlier, Čučković called for patience as the municipal authorities "will not be able to accept all 30,000 claims for damaged buildings and 25,000 claims for damaged cars at once."

All of Obrenovac should have technical water restored on Tuesday, so that decontamination and cleanup can begin, Čučković announced, and said that a water processing plant now had electricity supply.

He explained that divers were trying to repair "the situation with the lakes in the town," so that the sewer system could be unclogged.

RTS is reporting that Obrenovac is slowly going back to normal, with conditions being created for the thousands of evacuees to return to their homes.

The remaining water is being removed from the streets, but the sewage system remains the biggest problem. "It is still unknown what lies underneath the streets in Orenovac, where all that water could burst out, nor how damaged the system is," said the report.

The downtown remains without electricity, while drinking water is distributed from water trucks. Solar panels have been placed to enable residents to charge their mobile devices.

The town's most defended structure, the Nikola Tesla power plant, resumed operations on Sunday.

Authorities said they were working intensively to create conditions for evacuees to return, and cleanup as disinfection efforts are under way. Inside the town's buildings, everything up to 1.5 meters high has been destroyed in the flood.